Some time ago notDavies & I made an attempt to track down real-life von Brünings and Dollmanns – or rather we speculated wildly on who Childers might have been thinking of when he invented these characters. We did the same with Clara Dollmann too. But it isn’t ’til now – on October 23 – whenContinue reading “‘where does Böhme come in?’”
Tag Archives: Boats
The 21st Adventure Club Podcast: Boating Books, Dodgy Tides & Ladies’ Cocoa
When Clara Dollman comes to meet our heroes off the coast of Norderney on October 21, it all kicks off. Carruthers has to make the cabin fit for a lady, Davies gets hot under the collar, and there’s something fishy about the library of sailing books on board. We discuss the best books to haveContinue reading “The 21st Adventure Club Podcast: Boating Books, Dodgy Tides & Ladies’ Cocoa”
The 20th Adventure Club Podcast: An Adventure on the Kiel Canal
Finally, after months of talking about having an adventure, Lloyd (notDavies) and Tim (notCarruthers) head off to Germany, using ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ as their guide. It’s October 2 – 4, both in the book and in the real world. The route is Holtenau to Brunsbüttel. But how does the Germany of today matchContinue reading “The 20th Adventure Club Podcast: An Adventure on the Kiel Canal”
‘they’re born with predatory instincts’
On October 19, while putting over his cover story about an old wreck and buried treasure, Von Brüning gets a little bit snooty about the local Frisians, claiming they have ‘a weakness for plunder’. He more or less describes them as pirates. Imagine my surprise to find that for hundreds of years that is pretty muchContinue reading “‘they’re born with predatory instincts’”
The 16th Adventure Club Podcast: Spiekeroog, snipes & the Maxim machine gun
The entry in Carruthers’s log book for October 16 makes mention of: a survey of the Muschel Balge between Wangerooge and Spiekeroog; a spot of hunting for jack snipe; encounters with both the galliot Kormoran and the torpedo gunboat Blitz – the latter armed with four ‘Maxims’. Lots for us to get our teeth intoContinue reading “The 16th Adventure Club Podcast: Spiekeroog, snipes & the Maxim machine gun”
‘For miles in every direction lay a desert of sand’
I’ve been fretting about how we get from Brünsbuttel on October 5 to Wangerooge on October 15. Carruthers and Davies have their little boat ‘Dulcibella’. We do not. We’re planning to turn up on the banks of the Elbe on bicycles. Even if we did get hold of a Dulcibella-like boat (skippered by someone whoContinue reading “‘For miles in every direction lay a desert of sand’”
‘Commander von Brüning, in command of the torpedo gunboat Blitz’
Where do writers get their characters from? In the case of Childers, we can be pretty sure that Davies is, to a large extent, a portrait of himself. Carruthers, we think, is an almagam of several of his real-life Oxbridge and Civil Service sailing chums. Dollman is a bit harder to work out. Perhaps he’sContinue reading “‘Commander von Brüning, in command of the torpedo gunboat Blitz’”
The Curiously Specific Book Club 